It’s strange to me that the piece of kit people get most excited about on set isn’t my expensive lens or lighting gear, it’s the £30 homemade track and dolly which I built with my dad.

Earlier this year, I had a few projects where I really felt a dolly shot would elevate the scene but there was no budget for hiring one, so I decided to build my own. I turned to the best person I knew for the job, my dad. A now-retired agricultural engineerI showed him a few tutorials of what others had done and he said, “I can do better than that.”

And he did. Together, we built what you see below. It cost around £30 in total, hundreds cheaper than anything I could find online.

Since then, I’ve used it on music videos, a few short films, and just this week, I brought it along to a corporate shoot. Every time, someone on set be it crew, director, or client gets excited to try it out or see the footage it produces.

Gimbals are great, but there’s something about the smooth, steady movement of a dolly that just hits differently. Don’t get me wrong, when the project and budget allow, I’ll absolutely rent a professional one. But in low-budget filmmaking, a little creativity goes a long way.